Championships
Million-Dollar Championships From 2004-2009 and 2012 onward, on the week before Thanksgiving, there is a million dollar championship. Twelve of the season's biggest winners play from Monday to Thursday. On Friday, the three highest winners play one final game, and whoever wins gets the million dollars, and then plays the bonus round for more money. The million dollar check is handed to the contestant after the bonus round. Billion-Dollar Championships These were inspired by a contest that aired in 2003 and 2004 called Pepsi's Play for a Billion. In 2010 and 2011, Eleven-Up held a Billion-Dollar Championship. It runs for seven weeks and 35 episodes. The Billion-Dollar Championship consists of 100 players (each player in this championship has an ID number from 1-100). Like in Pepsi's Play for a Billion, each contestant chose a 6-digit number should they play for a billion dollars. The show itself also draws a 6-digit number for the entire championship. The 100 players are grouped into sets of three. Host Johnny Garfield draws three balls (numbered 1-100) from a lottery-like machine. The players corresponding to these numbers play a normal game (whoever's ball is drawn first goes to the yellow podium, the second draw corresponds to the orange podium, and the third draw is for the blue podium). After 33 episodes and 99 players have played, the 100th player plays against two randomly-chosen players for the 34th episode. In the 35th episode, the three highest winners out of the whole set of 100 play one final game against each other. The bonus round jackpot in these episodes is a flat $30,000, except on the 35th episode. The player who wins the 35th game gets a check for one million dollars, and moves on to the bonus round for another million dollars. After that, he/she is taken to a special bonus round (not involving the 100-square board) for the billion dollars. The player chooses which river to play on (1, 2, or 3). Each river moves at the same speed, which is a medium-fast speed. The player's 6-digit number is loaded onto a display on the wall across from the river. The wall is dark purple, and instead of an 11-space card, there are six spaces in one row. As in round 1, the player smashes boxes that flow along the river. The blocks hidden inside the boxes contain numbers from 0-9. The contestant starts with the last (rightmost) digit of their number, and works toward the first (leftmost) digit. When a contestant gets a block with a digit that matches the one they're looking for, the corresponding space is lit up on the card, and the contestant moves to the next digit. Digits cannot be passed on and returned to; they must be filled in order from right to left. If the contestant can fill the entire number in two minutes (120 seconds), he/she will win one billion dollars. If the contestant does not fill the entire 6-digit number, he/she wins $10,000 for every number filled. If the billion dollars was won, the contestant had a choice of having the whole billion dollars paid as one lump sum, or in installments: *Years 1-20: $5,000,000 *Years 21-39: $10,000,000 *Year 40: $710,000,000 Note that this is the exact same payout structure on Pepsi's Play for a Billion. The billion dollars was won on both the 2010 and 2011 championships. There are plans for future Billion-Dollar Championships in the future. 'Side Bonus' There is also a side bonus that a few of the contestants can win. After all 100 players have played (on the 34th episode of the championship), the 6-digit number drawn by the show is revealed. The player whose 6-digit number is closest to this number wins five million dollars; if they got the number exactly right, the prize doubles to ten million dollars. Second place gets two million dollars, and third place gets one million dollars. To determine who is closest to the actual 6-digit number, the following criteria are used (from highest priority to lowest priority in case of ties): *Number of digits that are in the actual number and are in the correct position *Number of digits that are in the actual number, but not in the correct position *The difference between the player's number and the actual number *The lower number Again, this is the same rule used by Pepsi's Play for a Billion.